A Philosophical Wish List for Research in Music Information Retrieval Cynthia M. Grund Institute of Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions - Philosophy University of Southern Denmark, Odense [email protected]

Abstract what might otherwise seem utterly intractable questions. Within a framework provided by the traditional trio What insights could MIR-research provide into the consisting of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, a first great questions of philosophy? The answer lies in the stab is made at a wish list for MIR-research from a particular facility which the tools of MIR possess for philosophical point of view. Since the tools of MIR are dealing with language as a sonic phenomenon, thus 1 equipped to study language and its use from a purely sonic providing yet another revolution in the linguistic turn. A standpoint, MIR research could result in another revealing search through the reams of literature produced regarding revolution within the linguistic turn in philosophy. the role of language in philosophical endeavor reveals that the language framework is virtually always a written one. Keywords: Philosophy and MIR, language as spoken, Little or no attention has been paid to the mechanisms at memory work in thinking, learning and communicating in a context 2 1. Introduction and Brief Setting of the Stage which is virtually of an exclusively oral, sonic. Since the overwhelming majority of time during which our thinking, Philosophy wrestles with questions regarding learning and communicative skills developed was metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. characterized by speech activity which was unsupported Metaphysics can usefully be characterized as that field by writing, it is of great relevance to our understanding of which grapples with the question: What is the ultimate ourselves as linguistic agents – and thus thinking agents – substrate of the universe, that which is most aptly regarded to understand what sort of influence this has had on the as basic? A related question is: What is there in the development of our brains, our strategies for memorizing universe for which our chosen metaphysics is the and what semantic contributions tonal aspects of language substrate? This area of inquiry may be labeled as the may supply.3 rightful domain of ontology. Epistemology may be briefly characterized as the area 2. First Stab at a Wish List within philosophy which struggles with the query: What (1) First on the list is a wish for more study of the ways criteria do we have for knowing rather than simply in which meaning is evoked, borne and created in believing that something is the case? language thanks to sonic characteristics.4 The study of Ethics seeks insight into the how we should answer the question: How ought we to behave/what is right?

The foregoing questions are daunting ones and the way 1 one might go about trying to answer them is far from As a philosopher, it has been a privilege for me to gain some familiarity with these tools at ISMIR 2004, ISMIR 2005, obvious. The previous century has many times been CMMR 2004 and CMMR 2005, as well as through NTMSB celebrated as that in which philosophy took a “linguistic and JMM. See [1], [2], [3] and [4]. turn.” A candidate for a brutal formulation of the attitudes 2 Writers interested in the evolution of speech and music are one and convictions reflected by “the linguistic turn” is this: It interesting exception. See, for example [5] and [6]. is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine having proper 3 An anonymous reviewer suggested integrating some discussion access to the kind of high-level of abstraction required for of Bayesian statistical modeling as well as some references to dealing with basic, philosophical questions without automatic speech recognition and computational linguistics language as the shaper of this conceptual realm, indeed as here in order to “allow MIR practitioners to more easily that which gives us the only means at our disposal for understand the role they could play in contributing to defining what it is we believe this realm to consist of. By interdisciplinary work.” Although this is an excellent suggestion, space limitations preclude implementing it here. trying to gain insight into the way language mediates our 4 It could be relevant to study to what extent stroke patients understanding, we are afforded methods for dealing with whose native languages are of the markedly melodic, tonal sort Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for recover spontaneously (viz., make unaided progress in the first personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies six months or so) after a stroke. Work by Gottfried Schlaug [7] are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that and collaborators at the Dept. of Neurology, Music and copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Neuroimaging Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical © 2006 University of Victoria Center and Harvard Medical School, indicates that melodic intonation therapy is a highly effective method for helping adult illiterate subjects is very important in this respect, emotion and provide indices which are reliable on a global, since all of their usage of speech is predicated upon multicultural scale.5 remembering small bits of sonic material and rules of (4) This brings us, finally, to the questions of ethics. As composition for these. More work is needed on the ways in more and more music becomes digitally available and which the comprehension of segmentation of speech and associated with various moods, emotional states, and the of prosody in speech is or is not related to the way in like due to various phenomenological properties, to what which we experience interference in the comprehension of degree should users be sensitive to impropriety, such as, musical gestalts when performance is slowed down, time say, using musical material from one culture’s repertoire of intervals between parts of a melody are lengthened or sacred music as dance and party music within the context shortened, etc. ([8], [9] and [10]). It would be of immense of another culture? interest to find out how illiterate agents living in a basically reading/writing free context (if such a context References can, indeed, still be found) compare with illiterate agents [1] C.M. Grund. “Music Information Retrieval, Memory and embedded in a literate milieu. In such a context, that which Culture: Some Philosophical Remarks,” in ISMIR 2005: must be remembered – if any appreciable detail is involved Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on – requires that at least one member of the group actively Music Information Retrieval, Joshua D. Reiss and Geraint and intentionally can retrieve information from his or her A. Wiggins, Eds., 2005, pp. 8-12. own intentionally stored memories (we are regarding [2] C.M. Grund. “Interdisciplinarity and Computer Music situations such as the reactivation of hypnotically Modeling and Information Retrieval: When Will the Humanities Get into the Act?” in Computer Music conditioned agents á la The Manchurian Candidate [11] to Modeling and Retrieval Third International Symposium, be sufficiently pathological so as not to require inclusion CMMR 2005, Pisa, Italy, September 2005, Revised Papers, in the analysis at hand). MIR researchers asking the right Springer Verlag, 2006, pp. 265-273. sort of questions could begin to examine the relations [3] NTSMB, www.ntmsb.dk. See programs for Nature, holding among the following: What mnemonic roles are Culture and Musical Meaning and Music, Logic and played by the tonal features of language? To what extent Technology. are musical preferences a function of memorability? What [4] JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning, is the relationship between knowledge, belief – and www.musicandmeaning.net memory? In order for an agent to have any grasp of what [5] Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jakob. “Music and the Origin of sort of recallable things and/or processes there are at all – Speeches.” JMM 2, www.musicandmeaning.net, section 2. and thus commit to at least some sort of ontology – [6] Iegor Reznikoff, “On Primitive Elements of Musical memory is indispensable. Meaning”, JMM 2, www.musicandmeaning.net, section 2. (2) Since memory on both a group and individual level [7] “Using Music and Musicians to Explore Brain Plasticity,” talk given by Gottfried Schlaug at the conference Music in is also crucial for the sustenance of culture, the the Brain – Experience and Learning held April 21-22, relationships between these two sorts of memory are 2006 at the Royal Academy of Music, Århus, Denmark important. The tools of MIR increasingly exhibit (hereafter referred to as MIB). unprecedented ability to analyze huge databases of sonic [8] Cyrille Magne, Mitsuko Aramaki, Corine Astesano, Reyna data at different scales, viz. on individual and on Leigh Gordon, Sølvi Ystad, Snorre Farner, Richard statistically determined levels. As the contents of Kronland-Martinet & Mireille Besson, “Comparison of accessible databases becomes more varied and ever more Rhythmic Processing in Language and Music: An widely available, it should be possible to obtain Interdisciplinary Approach” JMM 3 quantifiable evidence with regard to what the www.musicandmeaning.net, section 5. characteristics of music regarded as memorable within the [9] “The Nature of Music from a Biological Perspective,” talk framework of an entire culture might be. Such insights into given by Isabelle Peretz at MIB (see [7]). ways in which culturally robust sonic artifacts are [10] “Influence of Music training on Language Processing: Electrophysical Studies in Both Adults and Children,” talk constructed and maintained are philosophically relevant given by Mireille Besson at MIB (see [7]). from the perspective of “practical ontology.” [11] The Manchurian Candidate, dir. John Frankenheimer, (3) Since the description of musical pieces in terms of screenplay by George Axelrod, based upon a novel by emotional content is widely employed by listeners, Richard Condon. MGM 1962. MGM DVD 2004. research that can show correlations between brain states [12] “Emotions in Music Listening are Mainly Learned,” talk and at least certain emotional ones in a wide variety of given by Eckart Altenmüller at MIB (see [7]). listeners listening to the same musical selections could [13] “Emotions in Music are Partly Innate,” talk given by Karen help to cut across discussions of cultural relativity and Johanne Pallesen at MIB (see [7]).

patients with aphasia after strokes to regain their ability to 5 Their seemingly contradictory titles notwithstanding, [12] and speak. [13] contained findings which pointed in this direction.